After qualifying I debriefed with the mechanics about what I needed to go faster. I needed to be able to hold a better line in the faster corners and be able to turn the bike faster from the outside of the track to the inside, whilst keeping a good line. We made a couple of small changes to try in morning warm-up.
On Sunday morning we were awake at 6:15am and in the car by 6:30am. We were staying in the centre of
Jerez, about 10km from the circuit and the traffic from anywhere in Jerez is a real nightmare. We got about 3km towards the circuit heading for the new main road that is being built, thinking that this should help a fair bit and then the traffic started. We queued for a couple of Ks, hardly moving, and then decided to take to another small road that we know goes to the circuit - and that not many people know of.
The road was a bit too empty to be true, we used this road last year and it was good but we could see a couple of policemen in front blocking the road off. We showed them our paddock and car passes but there was no getting through, we’d have to go back to the main road. After a bit of arguing in my finest Spanish and not understanding a single world that they were saying I decided I better get out and walk the final 6km to the track as it was already 8:00am and I was out for warm-up at 9:15am. It took about 40 minutes to walk to the track and I just about had time to do a bit of stretching before I was on the bike.
I had to run in new pistons for 3 laps and was also using a full tank of fuel which seemed to worsen the problem of not being able to keep a good line in the fast corners. I finished 17th in warm up, unsure about which direction we needed to go with the bike. I didn’t really know what to expect for the race, I was hoping for points but wasn’t totally sure I’d be able to do it. I still feel like we are catching up on missed testing and catching up from whatever problems we’ve had, along with needing more track time on Taro’s bike.
